Keeping Charlecote "green"

Keeping Charlecote “green” helps our limited funds as well as benefiting our immediate environment and the wider world. We’re always looking for new ideas and products that will help, and maybe we’ve thought of something that you can do at home too.

Offices and kitchen

We’re no longer using disposable plastic cups for water; there are washable plastic cups and glasses available.

We’re buying our cleaning fluids in larger quantities that we can then decant into smaller reusable containers too, which will also help us throw away much less plastic. We’re also diluting the cleaners we use too, in order to use less, and haven’t noticed any lack of effectiveness.

All the paper we use in the offices is made from recycled materials and of course we reuse anything that’s been printed on only one side.

We’re always looking out for things that can be repurposed – an old dishwasher cutlery basket makes a great desk tidy!

“The greenest things are the ones that already exist” – we’re looking for “new” furniture for the offices from other NT places (there isn’t much that our Malcolm can’t fix).

We'll repair rather than replace where we can

Jana Eastwood

We'll repair rather than replace where we can

We’re assessing the “whole” costs of paper towels in the staff and volunteer loo against the costs of running a hand drier.

We get through a lot of tea bags in the staff and volunteer kitchen! But they come in a cardboard box which has a plastic bag inside which is thrown out as soon as the box is open, so we’re looking for tea bags which just come in a box.

Our shops

Our Plant Centre was set up with fixtures and fitting being discarded by other National Trust properties.

All our plants are in peat-free compost and we sell bags of peat-free compost too, as well as micorrhizal fungi granules so you use less artificial fertiliser for your new plants. Some of our plants are in Hairy Pots, so no plastic at all!

Hairy Pot Plants - just pop them straight into your garden

Jana Eastwood

Hairy Pot Plants - just pop them straight into your garden

We save all our cardboard boxes that our stock comes in and take them up to the Plant centre – we’ll load your plants in one so you don’t get compost in the car.

Who says you can’t plant a rose in the same place as an old rose? Did you know that if you plant your new rose in a large cardboard box of compost in the same spot, it will be fine?

We save all our plastic bubble wrap too and re-wrap delicate things that customers buy in the Servants’ Hall shop – you can recycle it again if you’re posting something, pass it on to someone moving house, or perhaps wrap plant pots for winter protection.

We’re using slate signs in the plant shop, the writing can be erased and the slates re-used over and over again.

Our reusable slate signs mean that we don't have to use plastic laminates any more

Jana Eastwood

Our reusable slate signs mean that we don't have to use plastic laminates any more

Orangery tearoom

We’re using compostable plastic cups. On quieter days when we can keep up with the washing up, we have gone back to proper glasses too. Our drinking straws are biodegradable - but have you thought about whether you need a straw at all?

Our new waste-collection company allows us to separate out more for recycling – glass, plastic, tins, cardboard and waste food.

We try to buy from suppliers who use glass rather than plastic bottles.

Refreshing lemonade - in recyclable glass botles

Jana Eastwood

Refreshing lemonade - in recyclable glass botles

House

Throughout the whole property we’re changing to LED bulbs where possible, just a few to go.

We’ve had movement sensors on lights in the offices for quite a while, so that we can be sure they’re off when there’s no-one about. It does mean that one person sitting working quietly sometimes has to jump about to turn the lights back on though!

Gardens

All our broken plastic pots and empty compost bags are taken away and recycled into bags for agricultural feed – who knows, maybe we’re getting some of our winter sheep feed back in our own recycling!

We compost all our green material on site, shredding anything too big to compost down quickly, and we’re putting in even more new compost bays later this year.

Broken terracotta pots are put into our planters for drainage.

Look out for our excess bedding plants behind the summerhouse – they’re yours to take home for a small donation.

Where posts have rotted in the ground we’ll always reuse the good end.

The deer and sheep keep a close eye on what our staff and volunteers are up to

Jana Eastwood

The deer and sheep keep a close eye on what our staff and volunteers are up to

You can help us to keep Charlecote green too – make sure your rubbish goes in to the right bins. And of course, pop in to the second-hand bookshop where there are plenty of good reads being recycled!

We’re asking our staff and volunteers to take a quick photo of anything they think could be reused or recycled, or anywhere where we can be more “green efficient” – please do the same and send it to us on social media!

Matt and the garden volunteers have thousands of plug plants to prepareJana Eastwood

Our staff and volunteers look after Charlecote – the deer and sheep, the house and its treasures, the gardens and parkland - every single day of the year. Discover more about what our staff and volunteers are working on at the moment.